[Design] Changing views in Chandler

[Mimi Yin]

Please see in-line...

On Feb 7, 2007, at 10:55 AM, D John Anderson wrote:

> On Feb 6, 2007, at 6:03 PM, Mimi Yin wrote:
>> Hi John,
>>
>> I don't disagree that in the abstract, the ability to change views  
>> is useful. My concern has to do with the fact that 'Search  
>> results' itself is a 5th kind of view, the other 4 being: Day  
>> View, Week View, Dashboard and Table...and that it is not  
>> intuitive how you invoke it again once you've switched away from it.
>
> The way views are implemented in Chandler today you can attach any  
> of 3 views to a collection of items. Currently we have  only 3  
> views which internally are named: Calendar, Dashboard and Table  
> view. It just so happens that in Calendar view you can switch  
> between weeks and days, but it's still just one view not two. It's  
> similar to adding another column to a existing Dashboard or Table  
> view. You see the new column in the same view, not a different  
> view. Likewise opening or closing a section in a Dashboard view  
> doesn't change which view you are using, just what is shown in that  
> view.

Okay, I understand that under the hood, Day and Week view are  
variations on the Calendar view. We still need to provide the user  
with a way to navigate between the two, using the menus. And for  
users, Day and Week will be different views just like the Dashboard  
and Table are different views.

>> I am reluctant to have 5 view options in the View menu, so for  
>> Preview, I'm suggesting that we shorten it to Day View, Week View  
>> and the thing we call Dashboard under the hood, but should  
>> probably present to the user as a Table...and display search  
>> results in the Dashboard/Table.
>
> So I think the proposal is to replace the current 4 items in the  
> menu plus the "Use sections" entry (a total of 5 menus) with only  
> 3: one for each view Calendar, Dashboard and Table (maybe called  
> something different) -- a net reduction of 2 menu items. Maybe we  
> should leave out Table if we decide not to use it for search and it  
> doesn't present any advantage over the Dashboard for finding things.

I think we still need Day versus Week. So Day, Week and Dashboard.

> It's also easy for us or outside contributors to add other views in  
> the future.
>

Yes, but as usual, there will be a design review for understanding  
how best to incorporate new views and how views are presented to the  
user. For example, do we have views with sub-views? e.g. Calendar  
Month, Week, Day. What is a timeline view? Is it still a Calendar  
view? or something separate?

>> I think we need to reframe this issue in terms of user needs  
>> again. In concrete terms, what are the specific use cases for  
>> being able to switch views independent of the App area? For  
>> example, what specific task would a user be trying to accomplish  
>> when say:
>> + Viewing just their Home Task list in a Calendar view?
>> + Viewing the Dashboard in the Calendar app area in a Calendar view?
>> + Viewing their Home collection as a generic Table as opposed to  
>> as a sectioned Dashboard?
>
> Here's a use case I use all the time in other applications: Suppose  
> I have the office calendar and I'm looking for a meeting that I  
> remembered Philippe scheduled sometime, but I don't remember when.  
> I switch to Table view, sort by Who, scroll to Philippe in the Who  
> column, find my meeting. Select it. Switch back to Calendar view  
> and scroll to the selection.

I would take this one step further and ask why specifically, once  
you'd found Philippe's event, would you want to see it in the  
Calendar? One reason might be that you want to review your schedule  
that day because you have a feeling that you're over-booked.

I'm also not sure why you wouldn't be able to do this Today without  
the view selector.

I still think the real solution for searching for events on the  
calendar is the multi-pane view where you can have both a table and a  
calendar up at once. Otherwise, I don't see how a UI without explicit  
view selectors is different from one with view selectors.

>
> I can imagine lots of other useful scenarios, e.g. looking at my In  
> box in Calendar view to see if spam arrives late at night. But I've  
> learned over the years that debating the usefulness of a feature in  
> an email or on a whiteboard is never as useful as letting people  
> try it out -- which is just another argument for getting experience  
> with it in Preview.

I think what you're describing is more of a timeline view?

>
> Finally, I don't think we need to worry about people criticizing  
> Preview because we removed 4 menu items that do the same thing as  
> the buttons in toolbar and replaced them with 3 items that do  
> something potentially useful. Especially since most casual users  
> will probably never notice the menu items exist.

I think something got lost in the thread. What I'm concerned about is  
that the View menu items:
  1. Introduce new views that are subtly different from the views you  
get by switching App areas (ie. Table versus Dashboard); and
2. There's isn't an intuitive way to get back to the Search results  
view, once you've switched away from it using the View selector menu  
items.

If we can return search results in the Dashboard view and have Day  
view, Week view and (Triage) Table view as the 3 options, then I  
think we're good to go for Preview.

Mimi